Memories Never Die
by DanielleSmileyFace2
Summary: A continuation of the second season ep "Crash" about a certain high school reunion... part 2 to follow at some point.


**Memories Never Die**

by Danielle : - )

Disclaimer: Miss Parker, Sydney, Broots, and Mr. Lyle belong to NBC, along with the excerpts from the episode "Crash". Yours truly just borrowed them for hers' and others' amusement, and will return them eventually.

Author's Note: This is a continuation of the second season episode "Crash"- where the Three Musketeers find out that Mr. Lyle used to be Bobby Bowman and he was killed by his adoptive father. It's my idea of what he was like before he went bad (but got oh so handsome!). So I hope everyone remembers what they found out because I'm not revisiting their discoveries too much. Enjoy- especially you Carolina!! Memories/flashbacks are in italics.

~*~

The brown-haired woman drove past the sign that told her she was now entering Townsend, Nebraska. 'As if I don't know it!' she thought with a sigh of was here for her high school reunion. That brought back a lot of memories- both great and close to unbearable. Memories she had made herself forget because they were too painful.

It entered her mind that this was a mistake, that she shouldn't have let her best friend talk her into coming. Everyone would be sure to mention it- that painful memory she rarely thought about anymore.

She pulled into the driveway of that friend she was now slightly resenting. Even when her mother died she hadn't returned- they hadn't been that close anyway, especially after the incident- so the young woman had just called the real estate agent, someone she'd gone to school with, and told him to sell her childhood home and do what he pleased with what was in it as long as it somehow went to a charity.

Jess, her best friend, had seen her pull up and ran out to meet her.

"Carolina!" She called with a smile. The woman, Carolina, smiled despite herself. She never could stay mad or glum around the always cheerful Jess.

They hugged and over Jess' shoulder Carolina saw a blond-hair, hazel-eyed three-year-old looking up at her.

"This is my daughter Caroline." Jess introduced, "We named her partly after you and partly after Lewis' mother."

It still surprised Carolina to remember that her friend had married Lewis Daty, the shyest guy in school.

Their little girl ran ahead of them into the house. Carolina deposited of her bags in the guest room while Jess put her daughter down for her nap. Then the two women settled down in the cozy kitchen and caught up on those things that couldn't be said over hundreds of miles of phone lines.

~*~

The next night was their reunion. Carolina woke up early and walked the short distance to Townsend's cemetery. Then she and Jess went shopping and she was reintroduced to the many people she had forgotten.

Jess' niece came to baby-sit and Carolina went with Jess and Lewis, who hadn't said more than a dozen words to her all day, to the reunion.

They got their name tags and immediately people started coming up to Carolina. They all seemed so... hickish. She smiled at the made-up word but realized she preferred their kind innocence to the hard indifference that normally surrounded her. All those names she had grown up with came back to her in a flash. Most of them hadn't changed much.

Everyone wanted to know what she'd been doing the past twenty years and why she had left so soon after graduation and why she hadn't visited.

Her explanations of "I couldn't stick around, not after what happened. Townsend just had too many memories." elicited the same words of consolation and regret that they had twenty years ago.

Despite that, the evening passed rather quickly and pleasantly. Carolina pretty much forgot bad memories and remembered the good as more and more of her old friends came up to her throughout the evening.

Then a classmate Carolina hadn't remembered as being so round in high school stood in front of the platform and began to speak,

"Uh, ladies and gentlemen, before we come to the end of this wonderful evening, I'd like to take a moment to remember a couple of students who are no longer with us" here Carolina held her breath, knowing what was coming, "because the Lord has seen fit to call them on home. The first is Diane..."

Carolina stopped listening as a memory took over her consciousness.

_Carolina heard the familiar sounds of feet on the roof. Her small yet bright, airy room was next to the kitchen. The normally hot kitchen was a single level, an addition to the rest of the house. The roof was right below one of the window's of Carolina's room. This, matched with the fact that the kitchen roof eventually slanted to within two feet of the ground, enabled Carolina to sneak out of her room at will. It also allowed people the opportunity to sneak into her room. She left the window unlocked constantly for a visitor like the one she now heard._

_Her bedroom was on the opposite side of the house from her parents' so visitors could come and go unnoticed. From the kitchen Carolina's mother could not see the teenagers climbing the roof, and the room was so loud that footsteps above her head were not heard._

_Carolina had been sitting on the floor with her back to the window, trying to concentrate on her Obscure Languages homework. She didn't turn around even though she knew who her visitor was._

_Because earlier that day, she and Bobby had had a fight. Again. And she hadn't gotten over being mad at him yet. She continued to ignore him as he came to kneel on the hardwood floor next to her._

_"Car..." He said, using the abbreviated version of her name. Since it was spelled like that vehicle people drove, her peers sometimes teased her by using that pronunciation in place of the first syllable of her name (which is really how you say it)._

_The only reason she looked up at him was because his voice sounded so broken and scared._

_After his voice, the first thing she noticed about Bobby was how pale he was._

_"What's wrong?" She asked with a voice full of concern. Her anger was forgotten as his possible answers ran through her head._

_"Jimmy, I- he got lost! We were hiking and I- I turned around and he was gone! I looked all over for him but he was just gone!"_

_Carolina could see how upset he was and ached to reassure him, "Bobby, relax. You just got separated. He'll wander back and I'll be picking him up tomorrow morning like I always do."_

_"But what if someone hurt him? What if-?_

_"Bobby!" She interrupted. "We live in Nowhere Nebraska! Nothing bad could have happened!"_

_He wasn't reassured and continued pacing. Carolina got up and when he came to her, grabbed his hands and pulled him down on the bed next to her._

_"Jimmy's fine, Bobby. Trust me."_

_He searched her eyes for a moment, for what she wasn't sure._

_"Probably." He finally consented._

_"Definitely." She stated firmly._

_Now that that crisis was over, she remembered her anger. Bobby sensed the change and opened his mouth to explain._

_"No." She said before he could utter a sound, "I'm sick of it, Bobby."_

Carolina came back to reality when the speaker got to, "Many of you may remember he died tragically senior year so we don't have a graduation photo of Bobby Bowman but we were able to enlarge a picture from a group shot of the Farmer's of Tomorrow Club."

Carolina's eyes filled with tears as his picture filled the screen. Not wanting to break down in front of everyone, she headed to the restrooms. Jess noticed her departure and followed.

Once alone, Carolina let her tears fall. Jess came in and offered her a shoulder to cry on.

"I'm sorry, Car." She said softly.

Carolina looked up and smiled sadly, "People will be leaving soon. You don't want to miss them." Seeing her friend hesitate, she added, "I'll be out in a minute after I fix my makeup."

Jess nodded and left. Carolina leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She took a long, shaky breath and opened her eyes when she heard the bedroom door squeak was Ricky's wife, who she had met earlier in the evening. Carolina had guessed that she was not a missionary, nor had the tight-leather clad woman ever been one. Unlike most of her classmates, Carolina was worldly and not naive in the least. And being a psychiatrist made her sure their marriage was a sham. She just didn't know why Ricky, who had changed so much (almost too much), would ever go along with whoever this woman was' plans.

~*~

As soon at they had figured out that Bobby Bowman was actually Mr. Lyle and figured out that Carolina had been close to him, Miss Parker decided she was going to have a conversation with her. One indication was a conversation the woman had had with Sydney- err, Professor Tom Grier- where she had apologized for missing so many of his classes even though she had loved the course "because of what happened to Bobby". Another clue had been when "Ricky" noticed her leave once the speaker got to Bobby Bowman. So Miss Parker (aka Mrs. Ricky Sanders) set off to find her to see what had happened to Bobby.

"Are you okay?" She feigned concern as she neared Carolina.

"I'll be fine. It just still hurts a lot."

"You and Bobby were close?"

"We were best friends since we were babies, then boyfriend and girlfriend since 7th grade. I thought we'd get married..." She trailed off when her voice started to break. Then she looked at Miss Parker with suspicion, "Who are you really?"

Miss Parker blinked in surprise and it took her a second to reply, "I'm Ricky's wife." She tried to make it sound like a stupid question but it had caught her too much by just looked at her and Miss Parker knew she wasn't buying it. She sighed inwardly as she realized that the woman in front of her wasn't a gullible hick like the rest. She knew if she was going to get any information she'd have to tell the truth. Or at least some of it.

"We have a room upstairs. Come up when this thing is over and we'll explain it."

Carolina searched her eyes like Bobby had done to her the day Jimmy disappeared before nodding agreement. Miss Parker smiled triumphantly as she left.

~*~Roughly an hour later

"The Sander's" Hotel Room

Broots, Miss Parker and Sydney were hunched over the computer tech's laptop reading about Bobby Bowman's murder. They all looked up expectantly when someone knocked on the door. Miss Parker answered it without a word.

"Professor Grier!" Carolina said in surprise. "But I'm guessing you're not really him." She finished dryly.

"No." Sydney answered with the remnants of an accent, "I'm not."

"So who are the three of you and why are you here?"

"Ricky's" wife hit him pointedly as she asked Carolina if she'd like to sit down.

Carolina nodded and gracefully lowered herself into the newly vacated seat. Then she looked expectantly at the three people standing in a semi-circle around her.

"I'm not sure where to start..." The woman admitted. She had changed out of her black leather into silk nightclothes that included a bathrobe.

"How about with your real names." Carolina suggested.

"I'm Sydney." Said the man formally known as Prof. Grier. "And this is Mr. Broots and Miss Parker."

"None of you have full names?" She remarked impatiently, then added, "It's a start."

"Tell us about you and Bobby." Miss Parker urged.

"You're the ones that came here pretending to be people that for all I know you could have killed and you expect me to start talking...?"

Miss Parker sighed and Sydney spoke, "I assure you we didn't do anything to them."

"Tom Grier died two years ago." The nervous little man named Broots said.

"We didn't even know they existed until the other day." Miss Parker admitted.

Carolina raised her eyebrows.

"We got a clue to come here, so we did." Sydney said matter-of-factly.

"A clue from...?" Carolina said as she got ready to leave.

Sydney looked at Miss Parker, who shook her head. So he returned his gaze to Carolina and continued,

"A friend who's helping us find some truths. This Bobby you grew up with, what happened to him?"

"Bobby died senior year." She said softly.

"I'm sorry." Sydney said sincerely, "Can you tell us about it?"

"He just died." They could sense her reluctance to continue.

"It's okay. Go on." Sydney urged.

"Are you a psychiatrist?" She asked with a sardonic smile.

He nodded and she continued.

"Well, they blamed his father, sent him away for life, but..."

"You don't think he did it?"

"No." It was obvious she was having trouble discussing it. "Bobby was adopted. They never got along, especially in high school; but I just... I can't believe that he'd kill Bobby."

"What about his mother?" Sydney asked.

"Martha loved Bobby but she never tried to stop it."

"Why not?" Sydney pressed without seeming to press.

"Why doesn't the non-abusive parent ever stop it?" She returned, "They're afraid more for themselves and just don't want to put themselves in a possibly painful situation."

"You sound like you have experience in the area." Sydney commented.

"I do. I'm a Child Psychiatrist. The majority of my kids have been abused."

Sydney straightened up, his interest perked, "Really? Where?"

"Denver. A fellow colleague and I have a practice together. What do you do?"

"I work with exceptional children. I help them make the most of their gift." He replied.

The only reaction he got was slightly raised eyebrows.

"Now that that's out of everyone's systems, back to Bobby." The no-nonsense voice of Miss Parker broke into the professional conversation.

Sydney could sense that Carolina was getting fed up with the conversation so he tried a different approach, "Where is Martha now?"

"She still lives there, on the farm, where Bobby grew up. I haven't been to see her yet, but from what I've heard she isn't doing well. I have to see her first, but I'm thinking of trying to talk her into moving."

"We're going to go see her tomorrow." Broots sudden comment caused Miss Parker to glare at him.

"Okay." Carolina agreeing threw Miss Parker off, "I'd like another opinion before doing anything conclusive." She spoke only to Sydney and he nodded agreement.

"Join us for dinner tomorrow evening. We can discuss it further." Sydney suggested.

Miss Parker felt like an outsider in the midst of professional talk way over her head. She and Broots had been forgotten, and that caused her dislike of Carolina grow.

~*~

Carolina didn't sleep well that night. Talking to Miss Parker and Sydney had brought a whole new series of memories back to the surface. They were the most painful yet.

_Carolina turned to her mother. The eighteen year old's mother wrapped her arms around her sobbing daughter as she led her away from the newly dug grave. She had been crying endlessly since they had discovered Bobby's body and subsequently arrested his father._

_All during the two and a half months since Bobby had disappeared only weeks after Jimmy, Carolina had refused to give up hope. She explained to herself and everyone else that the two boys had planned all this. Scare their parents a little, steal Bobby's father's truck, have a little fun, and come back. Carolina also told everyone she had a nice left hook ready to greet Bobby when they came back. It was for not including her- if not to have gone on their little trip, then to at least been told about it so she wouldn't worry so much._

_Reality had come crashing down on her that afternoon when she had been called down to the principal's office during her Obscure Languages test. She had been surprised to see her parents and Sheriff Kenney standing there._

_The Sheriff told her they had received a tip about Mr. Bowman's truck and that a body had been in it. Bobby's body. And his father was already sitting in jail._

_That was three days ago and now the funeral was over._

_If Carolina hadn't been so blinded by grief, she might have seen that basically all of Douglas Highs' senior class had shown up, as well as some underclassmen. She also might have noticed that Bobby's mother had aged about twenty years in the past few days and that her eyes were blank; she was at her only child's funeral and her husband stood accused of the crime._

Carolina woke up gasping for breath. She got out of bed and headed down the hall to the bathroom. Grabbing some toilet paper, she patted her face dry, then blew her out the bathroom window, she recognized the right-before-sunrise look in the sky. She grabbed her bathrobe and sneakers and softly let herself out of the ended up behind the house where she grew up. Jess had told her a nice young couple with a baby had just moved in.

Her room was lit up and Carolina wondered if that was the baby's room. Then she turned east. The skyline was just starting to turn purple. Carolina watched it change to blue, then a wonderful mixture of red, orange, and yellow.

Knowing how Nebraskans like to get up early for a family breakfast, Carolina headed back to Jess' house.

~*~

That Afternoon

Carolina knocked on the front door and waited. "Martha." She said when it was opened, wondering if Bobby's mother would recognize her.

"Carolina?" The worn old face broke into a joyful smile. She opened the door and ushered the younger woman into the house.

Carolina's eyes took a minute to adjust to the dimly lit interior of the house. Once they had she was amazed. It was like she had gone back in time. The house was exactly as it had been twenty years ago. The only change was that everything had aged. Carolina half expected Bobby to bound down the stairs, grab her hand and pull her back into the sunshine.

"You've been gone so long, Carolina." Martha scolded gently.

"It's my first time back." Carolina said softly.

"SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!" Martha suddenly shouted at the top of her voice. Carolina stepped back in shock. "Damn dogs." Martha muttered as she turned and led the way to the kitchen.

Carolina made a mental note of this; she hadn't seen any sign of dogs when she had pulled up, nor had she heard any barking.

"How've you been, Martha?" She asked gently as the old woman put a tea kettle on to boil. Martha didn't answer, or even appear to hear the question. She was looking at the table.

Carolina looked too and saw that she was looking at a framed picture of Bobby and Jimmy.

"Martha." Carolina said in an attempt to get her attention.

Their gazes met and Carolina was dismayed to see how vacant her almost-mother-in-law's eyes were.

"Do you have any help around here?" Carolina questioned.

"Help?" Martha answered vaguely. "Well, no... Not really, dear. Just the groceries sent up once a week. I don't go out anymore..."

"Not even to church?" Carolina asked in surprise, remembering how religious Martha used to be.

"No. I stopped a long time ago, after-" She didn't finish but both women knew what she had been thinking.

"Don't you get lonely here all by yourself?"

"Lonely? No..."

"Doesn't the house seem big and hard to maintain?" Carolina pressed without seeming to press, a trait she had perfected early on in her career.

Again, Martha appeared not to hear. She was just staring off into space with her arms wrapped protectively around her upper body.

"Have you ever thought of selling the farm and moving somewhere smaller?" Carolina rephrased the question in hopes of getting an answer.

"Sell?" That one word seemed to get the old woman's attention, "Oh, no! I couldn't do that without Lyle... he needs to have this farm to come home to. You should know that, Carolina." She scolded.

Carolina sighed sadly when she realized what she needed to do,

"He's not coming back, Martha. He got life without parole. I can help you sell the farm and find a new place. You could come to Chicago and get a place near me." She finished persuasively.

"It would be an awful lot of work.." Martha said hesitantly as she glanced about the room.

"We could get help. I could get lots of the guys we went to school with to help out."

Martha moved to the open window and yelled at the dogs to stop barking. Then she asked Carolina if she knew why they wouldn't shut up. Carolina shrugged and tried to smile, even though she really wanted to cry knowing how far gone Bobby's mother really was.

"Can I see Bobby's room?" She asked suddenly on a hunch she couldn't quite explain.

"Of course, dear. I'll get the tea ready while you do."

Carolina heard her yell at the dogs again as she made her way up the worn hardwood staircase.

Carolina nodded knowingly when she saw that Bobby's room was exactly as it had been when he was alive. She had known, almost subconsciously, that Martha would have kept it like that.

The only difference she noticed was that his bed was made, even though Bobby had been notorious for his "my bed's more comfortable unmade" arguments. She also noted that the picture he had always kept on his desk of the two of them at a neighbor's wedding was missing. A quick search of the rest of the room produced no results.

'Oh well,' She shrugged, 'Maybe he did something with it before he died.' occurred to her before she dismissed it as meaning nothing.

"Thanks for the tea, Martha." Carolina said before leaving.

"Come back again soon, Carolina. It's been so long..."

"I'll try. Don't forget to call me. Please." She gave the older woman an affectionate hug.

Once out of Martha's sight, Carolina dropped the smile she had kept pasted on her face the whole visit.

'I had no idea Martha could have deteriorated so much! I hope she remembers to call me! Oh- I really am worried about her- alone and like that! Somehow I have to convince her to move! Wow!' She added when she realized how late it had gotten. 'I'll barely have time to go to Jess' and change before meeting Sydney for dinner.'

Sydney stood up when Carolina headed towards their table at the nice, casual restaurant about an hour outside of Townsend. She noticed their were just three place settings at the booth.

"Mr. Broots stayed behind to do some research." Sydney said in a comforting accent much like Carolina remembered Professor Grier's.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, the waitress brought menus. The three people- Carolina wearing khaki pants and a light yellow sweater with flat-soled shoes, Sydney smartly dressed in corduroy pants and a dark gray sweater that made him look extremely distinguished, Miss Parker in a red silk shirt and black miniskirt covered with a black leather jacket- all ordered and waited until after the waitress had left to get down to the business at hand.

"I had no idea how much Bobby's death had affected Martha. Maybe if I hadn't stayed away so long --"

Sydney interrupted Carolina before she could finish blaming herself, "There wasn't anything you could have done even if you had been here."

"I know. But you still want to blame yourself."

"Yes. You do." Sydney said. He got this look in his eyes- like he was speaking from personal experience. Miss Parker was looking at him knowingly and Carolina guessed that something must have happened with one of his exceptional children.

"Was she yelling at the dogs when you visited?" Miss Parker asked in a neutral voice.

"Yes. The first time I almost jumped through the roof." Carolina laughed humorlessly.

"Lyle kept dogs when Bobby was growing up. Martha got rid of them when Lyle was arrested for Bobby's murder." Carolina's heavy sigh let her companions know how unhappy she was that she needed to have this conversation. "My initial thought was schizophrenia. What with the dogs.. and she hasn't touched Bobby's room since he left it.""Well, her reality is obviously not the real one." Miss Parker said coldly.

Carolina stared at her in shock and Sydney shot her a disapproving look, before hurrying to move on.

"She talked to us like her husband was going to come home."

"I know. When I tried to talk to her about moving she said she couldn't because Lyle needed a place to come home to."

"You talked to her about leaving the farm?" Miss Parker wanted to know.

"Yes. I'm afraid for her safety if she continues to live out there alone. I'm sure I could place her in a facility in Denver. Then I could keep an eye on her and maybe my presence could help her get better."

"How?" Miss Parker questioned sharply.

"Familiarity often helps patients recover." Sydney told her with yet another look of disapproval.

"Martha knows me. I know she's always considered me a daughter. She'll listen to me, and hopefully respond better if I'm there."

"That sounds like a very good plan." Sydney assured her. 'Once a shrink, always a shrink.'

Carolina thought and smiled inwardly.

"If I can talk her into it."

The food arrived and for a while no one spoke, until Carolina remembered something.

"How do you know about Bobby? Why do you care so much?"

"Like we said last night, we didn't even know Bobby existed until we went to the reunion." Sydney said because his was the only mouth empty that could answer her question. "And now we realize that we kind-of knew him."

"Kind-of knew him?" Carolina was too perplexed to continue eating.

"Well, yes. It's rather complicated." He said as he struggled to find the right words to explain.

"Rather?!" Miss Parker laughed out loud, "It's extremely complicated." She told Carolina.

"How could you have know Bobby? He never really left Townsend." Deep creases had covered her forehead as she tried to make sense of things. Suddenly her eyes widened,

"Where you his counselor?" She now looked at Sydney in disgust.

"No. No." Sydney assured her.

"You hated his counselor." Miss Parker commented.

"Yes." Carolina murmured as a memory enveloped her.

_"I have to go." Bobby told his girlfriend as he moved to get up from the bed._

_"Hmm..." Carolina mumbled as she was getting disturbed._

_"I'm meeting my counselor in half an hour."_

_Carolina instantaneously became more alert, "Oh. Can I come? It's about time I've met him!"_

_"No." Bobby told her firmly._

_"Why not?" She demanded._

_"Because." He answered._

_"Because why Bobby?" The almost sixteen year old narrowed her eyes._

_He said "No reason" but everything about him screamed otherwise._

_"Why the hell are you being so secretive, Bobby?"_

_His eyes widened as he heard her swear for the first time. His shock allowed her to rage on._

_"I don't like this guy Bobby. Ever since you started seeing him, you're different. You're secretive and... and mean!" She finally burst out._

_"Mean?" He asked mockingly._

_"Yeah! You have been mean! You've started skipping school and not doing homework and how much more often are you getting in trouble with your dad lately? And we never used to fight before you started seeing him."_

_"You call that "mean"?"_

_"Well, not all of it's mean, but it is different!"_

_"So? People change Carolina."_

_She shook her head miserably, "He's just bad Bobby. Bad for you and bad for us."_

_He laughed, "You're talking crazy."_

_"Then why won't you let me meet him?" She persisted._

_"I already told you!" He yelled._

_"No you didn't! You told me nothing!!" She yelled back, just as mad._

_All the rage seemed to leave Bobby and he answered, "Because he doesn't want you to meet him."_

_"Why?" Now, Carolina was as baffled as she had just been angry._

_"I don't know." He said miserably._

_Carolina narrowed her eyes, "These mood swings are his doing too."_

_He proved her right when he immediately got angry again, too angry to speak._

_"See?" She accused._

_Bobby clenched his jaw, glared at her, and stormed to the window, "I'm late." He told it before storming through._

_Carolina glared at his back until he was out of sight, hating a man she didn't even know with all her heart._

"Carolina?" Sydney asked in concern. "Carolina."

"Oh.. um.. sorry. How did you know Bobby then?"

Sydney and Miss Parker looked at each other as they tried to decide what to say. Carolina saw this and told them to just tell her.

"Well, why don't we head back to the hotel?" Sydney suggested persuasively.

Carolina narrowed her eyes and Miss Parker quickly spoke up, "We should. This is a busy restaurant and we don't want to keep taking up a table to talk while other people are waiting to eat."

Carolina conceded and headed for the door. Miss Parker and Sydney hastened to follow her.

Before getting into their cars, Sydney said they would follow her back to the hotel in Townsend.

~*~

Almost an hour later

"Okay, so how did you meet Bobby?" Carolina asked the trio once back in the hotel room where Broots had been hunched over a laptop.

"Well, we never exactly knew Bobby." Sydney said with unmistakable emphasis on his name.

"Why did you say his name like that?" Carolina asked cautiously.

"Carolina," Sydney said slowly, like someone about to deliver bad news, "Did it ever occur to you that Bobby might have faked his death?"

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head, "Bobby would never do that." She defended with assurance. Then remembering her latest memory, she said "Wait."

"What?" Miss Parker snapped.

"My Bobby wouldn't have, but the Bobby that counselor" She spat out the word, "made might have. He changed Bobby so much. I don't know how but he did."

The three just looked at her in silence so she continued.

"Why on earth would you think Bobby faked his murder? Why would his counselor want him to?"

"We think we knew him, or who he became." Miss Parker said.

The only response that got was a nod to continue. Miss Parker reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture. She looked at it a moment and Sydney took over the explanation,

"We knew him as Mr. Lyle."

Carolina started, knowing the origin and not understanding why.

"Mr. Bowman made Bobby call him 'Mr. Lyle'. Why would he use that name?"

"If he framed his father-"

"If?" Miss Parker interrupted Sydney.

He ignored her and continued, "He is probably doing it to remind himself that he did it. To rub it in, even though his father may not know it."

"Here is Mr. Lyle's picture." Miss Parker said as she passed it to Carolina.

Carolina took one look at it and said, "That's definitely Bobby. Where's your Mr. Lyle now?"

Sydney and Miss Parker were reluctant to speak up so Broots said, "He, uhh, he's dead."

"Oh." They could barely hear Carolina.

"I'm sorry." Miss Parker said with a sincerity that caused everyone to look at her in surprise.

"He recently died." Sydney explained gently.

Carolina stared down at her hands. For a brief second she had hoped to see him again and find her Bobby back and looking for her. The nervous yet strangely attractive man's equally nervous words had shattered that hope almost immediately after it had been born.

"How?" Carolina asked once she had regained her composure.

"He was shot when someone broke into his house." Miss Parker answered quickly while shooting Sydney and Broots a say-a-word-and-die look.

"Why would someone send you here?"

"He thinks we should know the truth about Mr. Lyle." Sydney explained vaguely.

"What truth?"

"I think he's trying to tell us that Mr. Lyle might not be dead, that he's faked this death, too." Broots opinioned.

Miss Parker rolled her eyes but Sydney nodded, "I agree with Broots."

"Why would he do that, though?"

"You have to understand something Carolina. Our Mr. Lyle is nothing like the Bobby you used to know. He's changed so much I don't think you'd even recognize him."

"There's no soft way to say it; he's evil- ruthless. It's like he doesn't have a conscience."

Carolina bit her lower lip as she tried to accept Sydney and Miss Parker's words. Finally she said, "Why do you say that? What has he done?"

"My father disappeared mysteriously, and Mr. Lyle was right there to take his place."

"Mr. Parker runs the corporation we work for." Broots explained.

"Right." Miss Parker continued, "He came in with a completely different agenda. He made a deal with the Japanese Yakusa that back fired, and he lost a thumb to them because of it."

"Bobby dealt with the Japanese Mafia?! Why--?"

"He felt that it would bring a lot of money and business to the Centre- our corporation- and that would increase his position and make him look good, so that if my father came back, it would be harder to get rid of him because the Triumvirate liked what he was doing."

"So what you're saying is that Bobby's turned into a money-hungry, morally corrupt self-server." Carolina stated bluntly, although it hurt her to do so.

"Unfortunately, yes." Sydney admitted.

"But he could still be alive." Broots voiced.

"He isn't!! I- never mind." Miss Parker pulled out a cigarette to replace whatever she had been going to say.

"You don't like him?" Carolina questioned her.

"It's hard to like someone who just happened to be there when you're father mysteriously disappears ready to take his place."

Sydney smiled and nodded to Miss Parker to show he appreciated her choice of words.

Carolina nodded in understanding, "Do you think he'll go back to the Centre?"

"Yes." Miss Parker responded immediately.

"Can you call me if he does? I need to see him for myself."

"I don't think that's wise." Sydney counseled.

"Please." Carolina begged.

"Alright." Sydney sighed.

Carolina pulled out a business card and handed it to him with a grateful smile. Sydney in turn gave her one of his, "for whatever reason".

"Thank you." Carolina stood to leave.

"I'm sorry it was such bad news." Broots said.

"Will you be alright?" Sydney wondered.

Carolina smiled sadly and shrugged. Sydney walked her to the door, then came back and sat heavily on the bed.

"Are you going to tell her when he comes back, Syd?" Broots asked the older man.

"Dammit Broots!" Miss Parker exploded, "He is not coming back! I shot him myself!"

Broots cowered in his chair in unhappy silence. Sydney stood up and put a hand on the enraged woman's shoulder. She shifted her glare to him but he didn't back down.

"Calm down, Parker. Thanks to Jarod, we know Lyle's history now. There is an extremely good chance he faked this death and will be back. Now we can at least be prepared for that if it should happen."

~*~

When Carolina got back to Jess' house, she complained of an upset stomach and was left alone for the rest of the night. She was on her way home by noon, longing to be wrapped in Bobby's arms.

_To be continued…_


End file.
